The Saxon
wheeled APC was developed by GNK Defence to provide a relatively low
cost armored personnel carrier for the British Army. It was an
economical supplement to the much more sophisticated and expensive
Warrior tracked infantry fighting vehicle. The Saxon is a very
basic infantry carrier. It is based on a revised
Bedford M series 4x4 truck chassis and other
commercially available components such as the engine and
transmission. Developed from the earlier and less protected AT104,
the base model was the AT105 which later became the Saxon before
being ordered by the British Army in 1983 to provide United
Kingdom-based infantry battalions to travel to North-West Europe in
an emergency and still retain a measure of operational protection
and mobility once arrived.

The Saxon is
thus basically an armored truck with limited cross country mobility
but still capable of operating in forward areas.

Seating is provided in the rear for up to ten troops,
although eight is a more comfortable load if all their equipment is
included - there is an equipment stowage area on the hull roof. Two
doors are provided, one each side, plus another at the rear. The
commander has a fixed cupola over which a 7.62-mm MG can be mounted
on an unprotected pintle, although some Saxons operating in the
former Yugoslavia were modified by the Army to accommodate small
one-mall MG turrets taken from old FV432 APCs.

British Army
Saxon variants include a recovery vehicle with a side-mounted winch,
and a command vehicle , some of which are operated by Royal
Artillery air defense regiments. Special Saxons procured for
operations in Northern Ireland include the Saxon Patrol whit a
Cummins 160 hp diesel engine and a special internal security
equipment such as a barricade removal device and spotlights; there
is also a Northern Ireland armored ambulance.

Other Saxon
variants, some of which have been exported to nations such as
Bahrein, Hong
Kong, Oman, Malaysia and Nigeria, were usually configured as an
internal security vehicles.

British Army
Saxons were retired in 2008. Since 2014 a number of refurbished APCs have
been delivered to Ukraine. It was planned that 75 of these APCs will
be delivered.